


Charles Xavier's Home for Wayward Children

by winter_hiems



Category: Wayward Children Series - Seanan McGuire, X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men Legacy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Autistic David Haller, Canon Autistic Character, Canon Disabled Character, Charles Xavier in a Wheelchair, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Don't copy to another site, F/M, Feelings, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Mild Gore, Murder Mystery, Old mutants in love, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:29:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23376169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winter_hiems/pseuds/winter_hiems
Summary: For as long as anyone can remember, children have been walking into wardrobes and falling through magic mirrors and diving into enchanted pools, making their way into other worlds. These worlds are mystical and beautiful and awful and chaotic, and they fit each child differently. After going through a door into a magical world, children often change to fit into the world better. They might grow sharp claws or begin to control the weather. Their skin might turn bright blue, and they might start firing blasts out of their eyes.When they return to the normal world, most of them are no longer able to fit in with all the ordinary people that make up the planet Earth. They need an adjustment period to get used to normal life again.This adjustment could never happen at a normal school, so instead they go to Charles Xavier’s School for Wayward Children.(An Every Heart a Doorway AU)
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier, Ruth Aldine/David Haller
Comments: 4
Kudos: 29





	1. Chapter 1

For as long as anyone can remember, children have been walking into wardrobes and falling through magic mirrors and diving into enchanted pools, thus making their way into other worlds. These worlds are mystical and beautiful and awful and chaotic, and they fit each child differently. After going through a door into a magical world, children often change to fit into the world better. They might grow sharp claws or begin to control the weather. Their skin might turn bright blue, and they might start firing blasts out of their eyes. 

Not all of them come back home, but some do. Some of them hate returning to the ordinary world, no longer able to fit in with all the normal people that make up the planet Earth. Others are relieved to return to sanity and normalcy. Either way, there is an adjustment period while the children get used to ordinary life again. 

This adjustment could never happen at a normal school, so instead they go to Charles Xavier’s School for Wayward Children. 

* 

Rogue parked the car and got Ruth’s suitcase out of the trunk. 

An ordinary woman might have found it difficult to lift, but Rogue was no ordinary woman, and she lifted it with one hand as if it were made of air. When she was sixteen years old she’d found a doorway in a tree and had entered the Universal Garden, where she’d been given a job pruning the plants that grew too enthusiastically. She’d picked up some specialised skills: super strength to lift heavy logs, and flight to get to the top of the tallest trees, and her job as a Pruner meant that her touch killed anything that grew too vigorously. 

When she returned home a year later she’d nearly killed a boy by kissing him, and after that had taken to wearing elbow-length gloves. 

She’d never anticipated that her niece would suffer a similar fate. 

Ruth was shifting her weight nervously from foot to foot, staring at the ground. Or at least, Rogue assumed that she was staring at the ground. It was hard to tell with the blindfold. She attempted some words of reassurance. “Look, sugar, coming back isn’t easy. It wasn’t easy for me and it wasn’t easy for Remy,” (Remy was Rogue’s boyfriend, who’d been transported to a world of casinos and sleight of hand, before he’d angered someone powerful and gotten thrown out) “but I promise, the Professor understands. He went through it too, and he knows how to help.” 

Ruth nodded and hugged her aunt goodbye, careful to avoid any skin-on-skin contact. 

Then Rogue drove away, leaving Ruth standing outside Charles Xavier’s School for Wayward Children with nothing but her suitcase and her anxiety. 

It had evidently been built as a stately home, before Professor Xavier decided that once-magical children had to have somewhere to get used to their magicless birth world. Ruth was sure that the building would be considered very grand, but for her the architecture too modern by about seven hundred years. 

Her nerves were fluttering in her chest, and she scolded herself. _I’ve been a knight. I’ve fought dozens of monsters and won. This is just going to a new school; I can handle it._ She walked up the ramp to the front door and knocked. 

It was opened by a man in a wheelchair, looking to be in his mid-sixties. He smiled at her kindly. “Good afternoon, Ruth.” His accent was English. He pulled the door open wider and pushed his chair back a little. “Please, come in. I trust you had a good journey?” 

“Yes – thank you, sorry. It was fine.” Ruth swallowed. Ten seconds in to meeting her new headmaster and her stammering tongue had already betrayed her. She entered quickly and closed the door. The Professor’s mind felt – well, she could barely feel it at all. 

“I’m a telepath too,” he told her gently. “In fact, I’ll ask someone to take your suitcase to your room if you just leave it there, and in the meantime you can step into my office and tell me all about the world behind your door.” 

*

Professor Xavier’s office was elegantly furnished, with a large oak desk and a few chairs facing it, but no chair on the other side because, of course, the Professor took his chair with him wherever he went. 

Ruth sat – the chair was comfortable – and watched as Xavier made tea. He passed her a mug and she sipped it tentatively. It was hot, but very comforting. 

“When I was nine,” began the Professor, “I was mourning the death of my father, and during my grief I discovered that one of the wood panels in my family’s library opened up into a stone corridor. I entered and discovered that I was in a castle; I was soon taken in by the company of knights who lived there. It was very Arthurian. They trained me and showed me how to fight with sword and shield, and they gave me a splendid silver suit of armour, and I fought many battles for the good of Genosha. 

“Unfortunately, I was crossing a bridge one day when it collapsed, and instead of falling into a river I fell onto one of the sofas in the library. Three years had passed. My mother had remarried, and my arrival would have caused quite a commotion if it weren’t for the telepathy I had gained in the time beyond my door, which I used to smooth things over until nobody knew that I’d ever been gone.” He sipped his tea. “Now, Ruth. I believe that something similar happened to you.” 

She nodded. “Is it okay – please – if I tell you with my telepathy? Pardon, I stammer, otherwise.” 

He nodded. “That’s perfectly alright. Whatever makes you feel comfortable.” 

She started at the beginning. 

_I was born blind. I don’t have any eyes, just sort of slight indents where eyes should be. It’s a birth defect, and when my dad saw me he left my mom within a week._

_My brother always blamed me for not having a father around. When I was nine he took the chainsaw from the garden shed and went to kill me. My mom got in the way. He got the death sentence, but on the day when they were going to take him to the electric chair his cell was empty._

_I got moved to a different children’s home just to be safe, and later I moved in with Aunt Rogue._

_Last month I was putting my clothes in the wardrobe after laundry day when my elbow brushed the mirror on the inside of the door and it felt_ different. _Not properly solid at all. I pushed my way through, and I came out in Tiresia._

_Everyone in Tiresia is blind, and they learn to see in different ways. I got the gift of prophecy. I was taken to meet Queen Irene, the Lady Destiny, and she said she was my great-grandmother. She’d come from my world into Tiresia, but later her daughter went back to her old world and never returned home, and she knew that I would come to her one day. She taught me how to read the future, and after she realised that I had an aptitude for telepathy and telekinesis she sent me to be a knight._

_It was amazing. I could basically see: I always knew where things were and I could even read books and look at pictures._

_And being a knight… it fitted me. I used my telepathy and telekinesis to make a psychic blade, and I could use telekinesis to turn my clothes into armour whenever I needed, so I was always ready to defend Tiresia._

“Defend Tiresia?” asked the Professor, “As in, there was the possibility of attack?” 

Ruth nodded. _Tiresia had a border with the Rainbow Wasteland. The Wasteland didn’t exactly have an army, but the creatures that lived there would attack us almost every week, so we had to be ready to stop them._

At this, the Professor looked at her very intently. “The Rainbow Wasteland. You’re sure?” 

“Yes. Sorry – why? Have you heard of it?” 

“Yes. I’ll explain later. Please, continue with your story.” 

_The Rainbow Wasteland had two Princes, and they fought each other as often as they fought Tiresia. They were called the Yellow-Eyed Prince and Prince Legion. One day the Yellow-Eyed Prince launched an attack on Tiresia, and I went out to fight him, but when I got there I realised… He was my brother, Luca. He’d been transported to the Rainbow Wasteland on the day when he was meant to be executed. He recognised me too. He grabbed me and tried to pull me over the border into the Wasteland, only we both tripped and fell, and then I was back in my room in Rogue’s house, and no time had passed at all._

 _I knew that Rogue had been through a door as well, so I told her and she said that spending some time at the school would help me._

The Professor nodded. “Thank you. Now, I’m just going to talk you through some terminology. When it comes to worlds behind doors, there tend to be two ways of classifying them. It’s on a sliding scale, but the worlds tend to exist as extremes: Logic and Nonsense, and Virtue and Wicked. For example, both you and I ended up in Logic and Virtue worlds; worlds with consistent rules, which were generally dedicated to good deeds. The Rainbow Wasteland, on the other hand, is a Nonsense, Wicked world. Do you understand?” 

“I – I think so, yes.” 

“Good. Now I’ll show you to your room.” He guided his wheelchair back around the desk and opened the door to his office. For the first time, Ruth properly looked at the back of his chair. There was a scabbard built into it, angled so that if the Professor wanted to he could draw the long silver broadsword that sat in it. It had to be a souvenir from his time in Genosha. Ruth understood his desire to keep the weapon close. She missed her monochrome armour, the silvered helm that covered up the place where her eyes should have been. 

She missed everything about Tiresia, even the fighting. 

“Now, Ruth,” said Xavier, “Your roommate went to a Nonsense, Virtue world. It was something like a fairyland. We find that students get on better with each other if they’re not rooming with someone from the exact same point of the metaphorical compass, but you can probably bond over both coming from a Virtue world. Her name is Megan Gwynn. Now, I’m sure that I don’t need to tell you this, but it’s school policy that we treat each other with respect as regards to gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, and also and especially the certain physical changes that come from prolonged time behind a door.” 

“Okay.” 

The Professor stopped his chair outside a door. “Here we are. Oh, and one more thing. My son David went to the Rainbow Wasteland and returned just over a year ago. If you ever find yourself missing Tiresia, it might be therapeutic for you to talk to him. He lives on the top floor.” 

Ruth nodded, and opened the door to her new room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At first it might seem like there’s no way I can give this fic a Cherik ending, but trust me, there will be a Cherik ending.
> 
> The X-Men and Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series have a lot in common, so I couldn’t help writing this AU.
> 
> Strangely enough, I actually wrote Charles’ sword into this fic before the Cerebro Sword appeared in the comics.
> 
> At first I was going to have Ruth be born blind and then have her eyes disappear from her time in Tiresia, but then I found out that Ruth’s physical mutation is a genuine birth defect that some people have, so I kept her origin story the same.
> 
> Charles’s Arthurian Genosha is based off his love of the Once and Future King.
> 
> Tiresia is named after the blind prophet Tiresias from Greek Mythology. If you want to know what Ruth’s armour looks like, check out X-Men Legacy (2012) volume 4.
> 
> In this fic, Rogue is still Irene Adler’s daughter. The timeline goes like this: Irene becomes Rogue’s mother and raises her, then Irene goes to Tiresia and becomes queen, then Irene has the daughter who becomes Ruth’s grandmother. The timelines between Tiresia and Earth aren’t quite in-sync which is why Rogue is just under a decade older than her great-niece.
> 
> Comments and kudos are always welcome <3
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters. The characters are owned by Marvel. Credit also goes to Seanan McGuire for her excellent book Every Heart a Doorway. I am not profiting financially from this story.


	2. Chapter 2

One look at her new roommate was enough for Ruth to understand the Professor’s comments about appearance. 

Time in fairyland had turned Megan Gwynn’s hair bright pink, her ears pointed, her eyes to a shining black. Translucent dragonfly wings protruded from a hole in the back of her t-shirt. 

“So,” she said to Ruth, her Welsh accent even expressing itself from that one syllable, “You’re my new roomie. Hi.” 

“Uh, yes,” said Ruth. Her suitcase had been placed at the end of her bed, so she opened it and started putting her things away. 

“What’s with the blindfold?” 

Ruth brought her fingers to the cloth of her blindfold reflexively. “I don’t have any eyes.” 

“Ok.” Megan paused before she went on. “For your information, I don’t mean to stay here much longer. The second I see my door, I’ll be through there and I won’t look back, and you’ll need a new roommate.” She sighed. “Then again, I’ve already been here over two years, and my door still hasn’t come.” 

“I get it – please, no – if my door comes I’ll go through it straight away as well, thank you.” 

“Lunch is in an hour,” Megan informed her as she turned the page of her glossy magazine, “and then we both have group therapy.” 

* 

Lunch was in the dining hall, where there was a table laden with sandwiches and salads, and a stack of clean plates for students to put their food on. Ruth and Megan piled food onto their plates and Ruth turned to look at the possibilities for seating – in a school full of teenagers the seating arrangements were bound to be somewhat political, so she had to make a sensible choice on her first day. 

Of course, back in Tiresia she hadn’t ever needed to worry about where to sit in the hall of her great-grandmother’s castle. She’d had a place of honour beside the queen, her squadmates would be sitting nearby, and they’d spend the meal talking about their most recent prophecies, and brainstorming ideas about how to best protect Tiresia from any future Wasteland attacks. 

Unlike high school, there had been no loud jocks, no mean popular kids, and no hushed comments of ‘here comes the blind girl’. 

Ruth hadn’t missed petty teenage politics. 

There were only two tables with space free. One of them was completely empty, and the other had a slim boy with long black hair sitting with his back to them. Not wanting to sit at an empty table, Ruth started to make her way over to him only for Megan to grab her arm and shake her head rapidly, before guiding her over to the empty table. 

Once they were both sitting and eating, Ruth whispered, “Why didn’t you , no no no, want me sitting near that boy?” 

“That’s David,” said Megan, taking a bit from her sandwich, “He was crazy before he went through his door, then he spent like two years in a Nonsense, Wicked world. He passes you in the corridor, do _not_ look him in the eye.” 

“What do you mean, ‘crazy’?” Ruth found it difficult to believe that the son of sedate, polished Charles Xavier could have anything to do with the word ‘crazy’. 

“Multiple personalities. That’s the thing, I don’t even know if that’s David sitting there, eating cucumber sandwiches, or if it’s something else wearing his face. Though if an alter took him over he’d probably be trying to set fire to something, so for now I’d say that he’s in his right mind. Or at least what passes for ‘right mind’ in his flaming trash fire of a brain.” 

Ruth took another look over at David. She realised abruptly that she couldn’t read his mind. He must be a telepath like his father. 

“You said – yes, no – that David was in a Nonsense world like it was a bad thing, pardon, yes, but you went to a Nonsense world as well.” 

“There’s a lot of different kinds of Nonsense,” Megan informed her. “In my Nonsense, I grew wings and I flew to the top of the tallest tree to referee the football games that the demons played. The balls they used weren’t balls at all; they were pumpkins grown especially for the sport, and once the game was over they were cracked open and we roasted the seeds and ate them. David’s Nonsense mainly involved him killing a lot of people in some really, really creative ways. He probably wouldn’t be allowed here except for, y’know, nepotism.” 

* 

Group therapy was held in one of the classrooms. The desks had been pushed back against the wall, and the chairs were arranged in a circle. A place for people to talk to each other and lay their vulnerabilities bare. An introvert’s worst nightmare. _Ruth’s_ worst nightmare. If the teacher called on her, Ruth knew that she would end up stammering so hard that nobody could understand what she was saying. 

In Tiresia feelings were shared privately, one-on-one, or in groups of at most four. Group therapy did exist in Tiresia, but it sure as hell wasn’t compulsory. 

A dark-skinned woman with white hair led the session. Her name was Ororo Munroe, and when she was ten she’d walked through a door in Egypt. She would not emerge for four years, and when she did she was in Kenya. Through her door she’d found a parched land full of starving people, barely getting enough out of their wells to drink, let alone water their dying crops. 

The people had welcomed her as a goddess, a saviour. They’d wrapped strands of beads around her neck and she’d danced on the top of the tallest hill to bring the rain until the whole of the land was lush and green. 

And now she was a schoolteacher leading a group therapy session. 

Ruth was sat with Megan on one side, and a green-skinned boy named Victor on the other. (He’d gone to a world of rainforests and chameleon people, where no-one would criticize him for kissing another boy.) On the other side of Victor sat David, at an angle which mean that the only part of him which wasn’t concealed by Victor were his battered black combat boots. 

Ororo began the session. “Today we’ll be hearing from students who went to Wicked worlds. Who would like to start?” 

“I’ll start,” said a boy with a tuft of pink hair. “I went to the White Hot Room, a world full of fire. You either burned other people or you got burned, and it was _awesome_.” He leaned back in his chair, grinning. “David should go next. Go on, regale us with your stories of kicking the asses of all those freaks in the Rainbow Wasteland.” 

Miss Munroe tutted. “Quentin, you know you can’t nominate other people to speak.” She turned to face David. “David, whether you talk or not is entirely up to you.” 

It turned out that David’s accent was British like his dad’s, but nowhere near as upper class. “As usual, I’m not going to say anything. And for the last time, Quentin, it was Cyndi who wanted to share. Because, y’know, Cyndi actually _enjoyed_ being in the Rainbow Wasteland, unlike me. And I’m pretty sure you only like Cyndi because she’s pyrokinetic in a way you’ll never be.” And then David didn’t speak for the rest of the session. 

A pair of twins spoke up. They looked to be eleven or twelve. A boy and a girl, their eyes had black-and-red yin-yang designs in the iris. The boy’s hair was black with a white fringe, and the girl’s hair was white with a black fringe. Their clothes were black and white, except for the red handkerchief that each wore at their throats. 

“We were homeless,” began the girl, “On the streets of Tokyo. And then we heard a sound, like wings.” 

“And we followed the sound,” continued the boy, “And there was a door in a wall that we’d never seen before, so we went through.” 

“And once we were through we met a dragon. He said that because he had no children we would be his heirs, so he taught us how to read minds and turn into birds so that we could fly with him.” 

“But we also had to help him destroy his enemies,” said the boy, staring at his shoes. 

“He would have prisoners brought into the great hall for us to practise on. We had to practise using our telepathy to kill every day.” 

“And we hated it.” 

The girl nodded. “We really hated it. It made us feel bad. But one day we found a door in our bedroom wall that hadn’t been there before, so we went through, and then we were in David’s bedroom.” She sent a small smile in David’s direction. “So now we live here and we’re never, ever going back to the dragon.” 

* 

After a few minutes of wondering if it was a good idea, Ruth left her bedroom and climbed the stairs all the way up to the attic. She could have taken the lift, but she preferred the stairs. 

On the landing there were two doors. One led to a storeroom, so the other had to be David’s room. Ruth knocked twice. 

The door opened by itself almost immediately, and Ruth stepped inside. 

There was a large main room with a kitchenette and several sofas, and a door at the far end of the room opened up into what Ruth assumed was his bedroom. He’d hung bold red cloth along the walls, and more brightly coloured blankets were draped over the sofas, making the whole place seem like a traveller’s tent. In one corner by a window there was an easel set up with a half-finished painting of a woman who might have been David’s mother. David was standing by one of the sofas, staring at her. She hadn’t gotten a good look at him yet; he was about half a foot taller than her and quite thin. His face was all sharp, dangerous angles, beautiful in the same way that a knife can be beautiful. His voice was soft as velvet. “I wondered when you’d come to see me.” 

“Did – please – did the Professor say I would come?” 

He shook his head. “All I had to know was that you were from Tiresia. Once I knew that, I knew that the two of us would be having a talk sooner rather than later.” 

“Why?” 

By way of answer, David began to glow. Rainbow light shimmered out from his skin to paint the room in dozens of different colours. His eyes blazed white. 

Ruth’s mouth fell open. 

No. 

Not him. 

Not here. 

Once the shock had worn off, her training kicked in. She slipped into a fighting stance and summoned her psychic blade – three feet of pure white light. 

The two of them stood looking at each other, and Ruth wondered who would make the first move. They would be fighting to the kill. 

Unexpectedly, David shook his head, and Ruth realised that his face was filled with sorrow. “I don’t want to fight you, Ruth.” His glow faded until he was just an ordinary teenage boy with messy hair. 

“You’re him – yes – you’re Prince Legion.” 

“Please don’t call me that.” David walked past her and went over to the kitchenette, ostensibly presenting his unprotected back to her, daring her to strike him down. “I’m going to make tea. Do you want any?” 

Ruth didn’t answer. 

“Fine. I’ll pour you a cup if you decide you want some.” 

Once the kettle had boiled and the tea had been made, David walked back to the sofa area and put two mugs of tea on a low table, before sitting down and beckoning Ruth to do the same. 

Her hands shaking slightly, she banished the blade and sat on the sofa opposite him. 

Close up, Ruth could see David’s eyes. One of them was green as acid, the other as blue as an unforgiving Saharan sky. “You’re my nemesis,” she told him, “sorry, we’re meant to fight to the death.” 

“I know,” he replied. “After all, you’re the Blindfolded Knight, heir to Queen Irene Adler. But I still won’t fight you.” He took a sip of his tea and looked across the table at her with his mismatched eyes. “Did dad tell you what happened to me in the Wasteland?” 

“No.” 

“Well, the thing is that while some kids end up in other worlds by chance, others get chosen for that particular world. I’ve had dissociative identity disorder since I was six, and that made me highly desirable to the wrong kinds of people. The Shadow King watched me for seven years before he opened up a door and pulled me into the Rainbow Wasteland to be the heir to his throne. But–” 

“Wait. Who’s the Shadow King?” 

David frowned. He looked a bit like his father when he frowned. “I thought you knew. I mean, you fought for Tiresia. Surely Tiresia knew what its greatest enemy was? The Shadow King ruled the Rainbow Wasteland for decades.” 

Ruth was taken aback. “Everyone in Tiresia thought that the Wasteland was ruled over by you and the Yellow-Eyed Prince, pardon, yes, and you were always at war with each other. I’d never – sorry, sorry – never even heard of the Shadow King before today.” 

David looked thoughtful. “The Shadow King always told me that I would never be able to get help if I escaped and ran to a neighbouring country. Maybe that was what he meant. If all his attacks on Tiresia were done in my name, I would never have been able to get help from there. But whether or not my theory is true, I never attacked your country.” To prove his point, David opened his mind to her, laying the memories bare for her to look through. It was all there: David being claimed by a door and coming face-to-face with a dark-eyed man who ruled the Wasteland with an iron fist. He was telling the truth. 

“Anyway,” he continued, “My point is that he wanted me to take a place by his side, and revel in the slaughter of innocents. He’d chosen me especially. He wanted his heir to be insane, and he thought that my condition would make me enjoy the kind of brutality that he loved so well. Except that I had something he found highly undesirable: I had a moral code. 

“I flat-out refused to hurt the creatures of the Wasteland. Not a slap, not a kick. Certainly no killing. Most of my alters did the same.” David’s face darkened at the approach of painful memories. “So the Shadow King put me in the Arena. Every day for three and a half years, I was taken from my cell and thrown into the Arena. One or more of the creatures of the Wasteland was put in there with me, and we would fight for the sport of the crowds. Kill or be killed. It was like if Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome had a drug-fuelled one-night stand with a rainbow. At first I used weapons, but over time, the Wasteland changed me. By the end, I had a new power for every single one of my alters. 

“Having the alters did make things easier. Some of them were more willing to take life than others, so I let them take me over when we had to fight. It was… if it hadn’t been so awful, I would have called it a good bonding exercise. 

“Then, one day, this girl turns up outside my cell. Her name was Illyana, and she had the ability to create doors at will. She was travelling through the worlds looking for her lost love Leah of Hel before she returned to Limbo, which was the world that fit her best. Illyana freed me from my cell and I killed the Shadow King, then she made a door for me and I went home. Well, not home.” He grimaced. “I turned up in the paediatric psychiatric ward I’d left from, only it had been three years and they all thought that I’d escaped somehow. The next time dad visited me I showed him everything through my telepathy, and he decided that I’d gotten enough control over my alters that I could come live with him.” 

Ruth bowed her head. “I – I’m sorry. I had no idea. The creatures – yes, thank you – from the Wasteland that attacked Tiresia’s border… they all said they were doing it on your orders, sorry. But… you’re not evil at all, are you?” 

He smiled awkwardly. “Fuck, I hope not. I try not to be, at least.” 

“If – if I ever go back to Tiresia, I’ll explain. I’ll tell them that you weren’t the one ordering the attacks. Please, though if my door turns up, I don’t know if I’ll go through. It would mean leaving Rogue, and I didn’t like having to – pardon – fight off invaders all the time.” 

David leaned back. “Ruth, no offense, but those last two sentences were utter bullshit. I can see your longing for Tiresia in every move you make, every word you say. Tiresia fit you like a glove, and now that you’re back on Earth you can’t help but see all the ways that you don’t fit in here. I’m the same. If the doorway to the Wasteland came back to me, I’d be sorely tempted to go through. The only thing holding me back would be how much I hated a life of constant killing.” 

He closed his eyes, and for a moment his expression was one of utter bliss and complete, heart-wrenching loss. “The killing was awful, but God, late at night I would lie in my cell and look up… The ceiling of the cell was clear glass and there were hardly ever clouds in the sky, and the stars… Every night I’d look up at the stars, and everything else seemed to fade away. Staring up at those stars, I knew that I was looking at the most beautiful thing in the entire multiverse. I would never go back to the daily murder of the Arena, but the temptation to get just one more look at that night sky would cleanly break my heart.” 

He opened his eyes again. “There’s hardly a single student or member of staff who wouldn’t go back to their world if their door opened up. Dad got lucky; he managed to go back once, but he got thrown out again and it cost him dear.” 

“I didn’t know that he went to Genosha twice, no. He said it was just the once, when he was nine.” 

“Nope. He manged to find his door again when he was twenty-four. Twenty-four! Most people can’t get back through their doors once they’re out of their teens. Mid-twenties is almost unheard-of. So he went back to Genosha, and got himself crowned king, and fell in love with the Lord of Metal, who forged the sword he wears. It’s called Cerebro. He had six really, really great years before the Lord of Metal betrayed him. Dad ended up getting thrown out of Genosha by the man he loved and paralysed below the waist into the bargain. Even then, if his door opened up today, he’d be hard-pressed to resist the urge to go back through. I think he still loves his blacksmith Lord, in his heart. Even when he was with my mum.” 

David rose, and opened the door for her, showing her out. “To be honest, Ruth, there’s hardly any of the students or staff who wouldn’t go back to their worlds if their doors turned up. Apart from Sojobo and Karasu, that is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The worlds that Megan, Storm, Anole, and Sojobo and Karasu went to are all inspired by their comic-book backstories. (Sojobo and Karasu turn up in X-Men Legacy (2012) volume 1.) Quentin’s experiences in the White Hot Room are of course inspired by his time as a host for the Phoenix force.
> 
> Cyndi is the alter who controls David’s pyrokinesis.
> 
> David’s time in the Rainbow Wasteland is based off the way the Shadow King treated him in the comics. I also wanted to make a point about how you can’t stereotype mentally ill people. The Shadow King assumed that David’s DID would make him want to hurt people, and was completely wrong.
> 
> I decided that Illyana would free David from his cell because in the comics they teamed up to kill the Elder Gods. Illyana’s love story with Leah of Hel is based off the Angela: Queen of Hel comics.
> 
> I deliberately had Megan describe David incorrectly to show that she doesn’t really know him. She says that he spent two years in the Wasteland, when in fact it was more than three.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw: this chapter contains a brief mention of past self-harm

High-pitched screaming jolted Ruth from her sleep. In an instant she was out of bed, and both her and Megan were running out of their bedroom towards the source of the cries. 

At the other end of the corridor there was a small gathering of teachers, as well as David, who was standing facing an open door, an expression of pure unfiltered horror on his face. He was being tightly hugged around the waist by Karasu, who had stopped screaming and started sobbing uncontrollably into David’s t-shirt. 

Many other students were looking out of their bedrooms and into the corridor. 

Ororo Munroe was saying something to David, asking him a question, but he wasn’t responding, just looking into the room that Karasu shared with her brother. 

At last, Professor Xavier arrived, wrapped in a dressing gown with one hand on the controls of his wheelchair. His voice was firm. “Kurt, take Karasu to a spare room and look after her. Jean, take David up to his room and stay with him. Kitty, I need you to secure this room. Make sure that none of the students enter or look inside. Hank, I want you to take forensic samples. As soon as you have results, I want to know everything. Scott, Logan, Ororo, Bobby, search the house and grounds for intruders.” He turned his chair to the corridor at large. “Lessons are cancelled for the day. Stay in your rooms unless you need to go to the bathroom. If you need the toilet, you go in pairs. You won’t need to go to the dining hall to eat; food will be brought to you. Nobody is to enter Sojobo and Karasu’s room. Do I make myself clear?” 

The students who were poking their heads out of their rooms all nodded and muttered in agreement, before the doors started shutting, one by one. 

* 

The students might have been confined to their rooms, but groupchats meant that this did little to halt the gossip that sped through the mansion like wildfire in the wake of the morning’s disturbance. Quentin Quire had read Kurt Wagner’s mind, and sent messages to everyone detailing what had happened. 

At some point in the night, someone had snuck into Sojobo and Karasu’s room without waking them up, and gouged out Sojobo’s black-and-red eyes. He had died from shock. 

“I think David did it,” Megan said casually. 

“No, he wouldn’t.” Ruth had seen David’s face as he talked about his time in the Arena. David had killed, but he was no killer. 

“How would you know?” said Megan. “You’ve been here a day. Here are the facts. Fact one: David is crazy as shit. Fact two: he was like, right there when the body was found. Fact three: he’s been close with Sojobo and Karasu ever since they came here. Mentoring them. Teaching them how to use their telepathy.” 

“Sorry sorry – doesn’t that make him less likely to kill Sojobo? He liked him.” 

“Yeah, but it also means that David was close to him. Which gets to my last point. David’s a telepath, and I think that only a telepath could have killed Sojobo without waking Karasu up or without Sojobo yelling for help.” 

“I still don’t think he did it. He… seems nice, yes please.” 

Megan shrugged. “It doesn’t matter how nice he is though, does it? It could have been one of his personalities, taking him over to kill Sojobo. He might be the murderer and not even know it.” She waved her phone at Ruth, showing one of the mansion’s groupchats. “Everyone else thinks so too.” 

She stared at Ruth for a few moments before she said, “Look, you can’t go around saying that David seems nice if you’ve only known him for a day. You’ve never seen him get taken over by an alter. Once time, we were in group therapy and suddenly David wasn’t David anymore. He was this Cockney girl called Cyndi who loved fire. For the whole time that he was Cyndi he went on and on about all the monsters she’d burned to death in the Rainbow Wasteland. Wouldn’t shut up about it until the Professor took David to his room to calm down. You’ve got to remember that, Ruth. Even if David Haller is nice, there are about a thousand things in his brain that _aren’t_ nice, and at any given moment, one of them might take him over and decide to find out what you look like with the flesh burned off your skull.” 

* 

A few hours after the discovery of the murder, Scott Summers went room-to-room delivering toast for breakfast, but he refused to tell them anything about how the investigation was progressing. 

About half an hour after that, there was a knock on their door. 

Ruth opened it to find Professor Xavier sitting outside. 

“My I come in?” 

By way of answer, Ruth opened the door wider and stepped back to let him pass. 

The Professor nodded a greeting at Megan and rearranged the blanket across his legs before he began. “We’re having a meeting with all the teachers to discuss the events of this morning. Ruth, David tells me that the two of you get on well, so I’d appreciate it if you could watch over him and Karasu until the meeting is over. Karasu is still very distressed, and David’s teleportation meant that he was first on the scene, so he’s very shaken up as well.” 

“Of course,” said Ruth. 

“Thank you. Just stay with them until I come and tell you that the meeting is over. I’ll escort you up to the attic now.” 

Megan stood up very suddenly. “I’ll come too.” 

Xavier looked at her for a few moments before saying, “Very well.” 

* 

Karasu was fast asleep on one of David’s sofas, the trauma of the morning finally taking its toll. Someone had covered her with one of the colourful blankets. 

David, meanwhile, was curled up on the opposite sofa, hugging his knees. He too had been wrapped with a blanket. 

The Professor said a few quiet words to him, and he responded even more quietly, then Xavier turned and left, closing the door behind him. 

David’s eyes flicked in the direction of Megan and Ruth, before flicking back to stare at nothing in particular, his gaze blank and unfocused. 

Megan put her hands on her hips awkwardly. “So, uh, David. How are you?” 

He laughed bitterly. “How am I? Four months ago, Sojobo and Karasu turned up in my bedroom. I helped them pick out a room, helped them with their English, helped them with their homework, read them bedtime stories. When they missed Tokyo, they talked to me. When they missed the world behind their door – oh, killing for that dragon was horrific, but they still missed it sometimes – they talked to me. They were teaching me Japanese. And now Sojobo is dead, and you think that _I_ did it.” 

His voice was slightly hoarse, his eyes puffy from weeping. 

Megan opened and closed her mouth several times before speaking. “I – I just thought that maybe you’re more likely to than anyone else here.” 

This time, David did turn his head to look at Megan. “You really have no fucking clue what dissociative identity disorder is like, do you?” 

“But if one of your alters killed Sojobo, how would you know?” 

“Because if one of them had killed someone, they would have fucking told me!” Realising that his voice had risen to nearly a shout, David looked quickly at Karasu to check that she was still asleep before he went on. “I know you’re still hung up over that time Cyndi was fronting for me, but she was all bark and no bite. My alters are far more likely to hurt me than they are to hurt anyone else. Last month, an alter – Ksenia – took me over and used her claws to slash up my arm. She said she was teaching me a lesson. Still haven’t figured out what that lesson was meant to be. If it weren’t for my healing ability, I would have some serious scars. Point is, I loved Sojobo like a brother and if I ever find out who killed him, well, then you’ll be right to call me a murderer.” 

Ruth sat down on the other side of the sofa that David was sitting on. “Do you want to talk about it?” 

His voice had been animated before, but now it sounded hollow. “I heard Karasu scream, so I teleported into their room. Sojobo was lying on the bed with two holes where his eyes were meant to be. What more is there to tell?” He paused. “Shit. Oh shit. It was probably kind of insensitive of me to say that to you, wasn’t it?” 

She shrugged. “It’s fine. I don’t have holes instead of eyes. More like indents, really.” 

At this point, Karasu began to stir. She sat up, ran her fingers through her mussed hair and looked up at David mournfully, her lips trembling. 

Instantly he had thrown off his own blanket and walked around the table to sit by her. “Hey, kiddo. You want me to make you a hot chocolate?” 

Karasu nodded, and David gestured towards the kitchenette, using his telekinesis to make the drink so that he could stay by Karasu’s side. 

“Actually,” he said, “Anyone else want hot chocolate?” 

“Yes please,” said Ruth. 

“Sure,” said Megan. 

David raised an eyebrow at her. “How do you know that I won’t poison you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, basically, Megan went with Ruth because she didn’t want Ruth to be alone with David.
> 
> Sojobo’s death is the same as in the comics, and it fitted really well with the Every Heart a Doorway AU.
> 
> Ksenia is the alter with control over David’s ability to grow claws of hard light.
> 
> Nobody at the school has called the police because this is a school full of people who have been mutated by time spent in fantasy worlds, and Charles can't risk bringing anyone from the outside world into that.


	4. Chapter 4

The students were escorted from their rooms to the dining hall for dinner. 

David, Ruth, Karasu, and Megan sat down at the end of one of the tables. David kept his arm around Karasu’s shoulders and glared at anyone who might think about talking to the girl. When he wasn’t glaring at any of the other students, he was glaring at Megan. 

Before anyone started eating, Professor Xavier addressed the school as a whole. “As I’m sure all of you know, this morning Sojobo was found murdered in his bed. The house and grounds have been searched thoroughly and there’s no sign of an intruder, but until the matter is settled all students must stay in groups of at least two at all times. This includes going to the bathroom. Your lessons will be adjusted to accommodate this. 

“Fortunately for us, the killer left behind a large amount of DNA evidence at the murder scene. Tomorrow we will take samples from each of you to rule you out of the pool of suspects. I would also like to add that, in light of certain rumours that have started during the day, the DNA found at the crime scene is not a match for my son David.” 

David bowed his head, uncomfortable at the number of people who were now looking at him. Ruth had the urge to reach across the table and squeeze his hand. He deserved to know that at least one of the students was on his side. 

“Finally, Quentin?” 

Quentin Quire looked up at the Professor. “Yes, sir?” he was grinning, clearly enjoying the attention that he was getting now that Xavier had singled him out. 

“This morning you read Kurt’s mind without his consent. You know full well that this is against school policy, and you will have detention tomorrow lunchtime.” The Professor turned back to the school at large. “That is all. Please enjoy your meal, and stay safe until this time of danger has passed.” 

As he made his way down the aisle between the tables to the table where the teachers sat, Charles Xavier reached over and patted David’s shoulder gently. 

After several minutes of eating, David turned to Ruth and whispered, “You should watch out.” 

Megan speared a piece of pasta with her fork. “Why should she watch out?” 

David finished his mouthful before he continued. “Now that everyone knows that it wasn’t me, they’ll be looking around for other suspects. The murder happened the night after you arrived here, and the killer took Sojobo’s _eyes_.” 

Suddenly self-conscious, Ruth adjusted the angle that her blindfold was sitting at. “You’re not saying – pardon, no – you don’t think that I did it?” 

“No, of course not. But people will be looking for someone to blame, and you’re new here. The thing that I’m curious about is –” David looked down at Karasu to his right and decided that the rest of the conversation was best said out of the girl’s earshot, so he continued his sentence telepathically. – _why Sojobo’s eyes? It’s almost as if the murder was secondary to the purpose. Sojobo’s eyes were changed by his time in the world behind his door, so perhaps there was something special about them. But if so, why didn’t the killer take Karasu’s eyes as well? Hers are identical to his. Did the killer only need one pair? If so, why? And if Sojobo had survived the mutilation, would the murderer have left him alive or would they have killed him anyway?_

 _I don’t know,_ replied Ruth, _but I want to find out. I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep tonight._

David shrugged. _If the killer gets you, I promise to avenge your death, and I trust that you’ll do the same for me. I would also like to request a funeral so Jewish that even my mother will be wondering if it’s too much._

_I’d like a non-religious funeral._

_Will do._

“Uh, guys?” said Megan as she looked between Ruth and David, “The two of you have been staring at each other kind of weirdly, so I’m guessing that you are either having some kind of telepathic conversation, or you’re about to start making out.” 

“It was telepathy,” said David quickly. 

Megan shrugged. “Care to fill me in?” 

“Now that you know for sure that I’m not the killer?” 

“David would never have hurt Sojobo,” Karasu butted in, staring daggers at Megan despite the fact that the older girl was almost a foot taller than her. “You don’t deserve his ideas about who killed my brother.” 

It occurred to Ruth that David had probably already shared his theories about the murder with Karasu. Out of everyone in the mansion, David and Karasu had been closest to Sojobo; of course they would be trying to figure out the identity of the killer together. Part of her felt a little jealous that David had shared his theories with Karasu first, and she scolded herself. Sojobo had been Karasu’s twin. Karasu had first right to any information or theories about his death. 

While Ruth had been thinking about this, Megan seemed to have been doing some fast-paced soul-searching. She flushed a deep red. “David, I’m sorry. About thinking that you were the killer.” 

“I’m an autistic guy with dissociative identity disorder. Pretty much everyone thought I was the killer.” He propped up his chin on one fist. 

“And that was… really shitty of us.” 

“Yeah,” he agreed, “Yeah it was.” 

“My point is that I’m sorry about all of it and I’ll try and do better and be nicer, but I want to find out who the killer is as well, and I’d like it if you told me your theories.” 

David nodded. “Thanks for swallowing your pride and deciding to stop being an arsehole.” 

* 

Ruth slept badly. She and Megan had agreed to jam a chair under the door handle to their room, and the teachers were taking shifts to patrol the corridors, but she still didn’t feel safe. What if the murderer somehow came in through the window? 

In Tiresia, murder had been a foreign concept. For a nation of blind prophets, criminals were caught almost as soon as they had committed the crime (but never before; there were strict rules about that), and there was hardly any crime to begin with. If someone died in Tiresia, it was either by natural causes, or an accident, or on patrol along the border with the Rainbow Wasteland. Back in Tiresia, back where Ruth belonged, murder just didn’t happen, and the events of the previous day had served to remind Ruth that she didn’t belong in this world. 

As soon as they had both showered, Megan and Ruth made their way up to David’s attic rooms before breakfast. 

Inside, David and Karasu were having an argument. 

Or at least, it looked like David. It was David’s body and David’s face, but the skin was deep blue, and the eyes were the same blank white as Irene’s. 

The voice wasn’t David’s either. It was a woman’s voice. 

“I don’t know why you’re so angry, Karasu,” he – she? – was saying. “The fact is that I’m fronting right now. You can talk to David later.” 

Karasu stamped her foot. “I want to talk to David _now!”_

She reinforced her last word with a telepathic attack, and the alter (she had to be one of David’s alters) clearly had no idea how to use David’s powers to deflect it. David’s alter winced, and the blue retreated from his skin. He blinked a few times, and his eyes went back to normal. He sat down on the nearest sofa slowly. 

The next time he spoke, his voice was his own. “Karasu, we’ve talked about this. If an alter starts fronting, you can’t just telepathically shunt them out. It isn’t healthy for me, and besides, Lady Delphic is one of the nicer ones.” 

Ashamed, Karasu was staring down at her shoes. “I know, I just – I just wanted to talk to you.” She wiped away a tear with the attitude of someone who didn’t want anyone to notice that they were crying. 

David pulled her into a hug. “S’okay, little bird. I know that you’re going through something awful right now. And I know that I’m not always fronting when you need me, but I’m trying my best. The whole system of my mind is trying our best.” He broke off the hug and stood. “Now, do you want to go to the dining hall to eat, or do you want me to bring something up for you?” 

Karasu considered her options for a few moments. “Dining hall.” 

“Okay.” 

The four of them made their way down the main stairs as one, each of them careful not to fall behind the rest of the group. 

* 

After breakfast, Karasu flat-out refused to be separated from David, so Dr Grey agreed that she could do her work in the corner of the classroom while the older students had their lessons. 

The morning passed without incident, but after lunch they were making their way out of the dining hall when Bobby Drake ran out of a nearby door. 

“Have any of you seen Quentin?” he said breathlessly. 

“No, why?” David replied. 

“I was supervising his lunchtime detention. He said he needed the toilet so I escorted him to the boy’s bathroom. Things had been quiet for a few minutes, so I went in to see what was keeping him. He’d climbed out the window.” 

“Shit,” said David and Megan simultaneously. 

Quire might have wanted a moment to himself, but nobody was inclined to let him get it. They left Karasu with a group of younger kids and got Logan from the teacher’s lounge. With Logan tracking Quire’s scent and David and Ruth searching for his mind telepathically, they were bound to find him sooner rather than later. 

They were checking the ground under the toilet window for footprints when they heard the screams. Instantly, the five of them were running towards the small copse of trees where the sound was coming from. 

No, not sound. Sounds. It was three different voices, all female. 

Once they were closer to the trees they saw the Frost triplets, Celeste, Mindee, and Phoebe, all looking at a pair of feet sticking out from behind a tree. 

Ruth walked forward to get a better look. 

Quentin Quire had been scalped. His pink hair had been cut from his skull with the skin attached, leaving an ugly red stripe along his head. He had been stabbed, too; once in each eye. 

Logan moved forward, herding the four girls away from the scene. “You kids stay out of this. Go back inside. David, tell your father to get down here.” 

Bobby started to cordon off the area with an ice wall. 

As they took a few paces away from the body, David turned to Ruth and Megan. “I don’t think the murderer could have been any of the students or staff.” 

“Yeah?” said Phoebe. “Why’s that?” 

David rolled his eyes. “Wasn’t talking to you, but seeing as you’re so curious… The killer took Sojobo’s eyes. The thing about his body that had been changed by his time behind his door. Then they took Quentin’s hair, probably thinking that Quentin got pink hair while he was in the White Hot Room, but he didn’t. He dyed his hair, everyone knew that, so it can’t be any of the students or staff.” 

Celeste cast a contemptuous look over at Ruth. “ _She_ didn’t. She’s only been here two days, and besides, she’s a telepath. We were in the garden the whole time, probably while Quentin was being murdered. It would have taken a telepath to hide from us, and a telepath to sneak up on Quentin.” 

Ruth tried to defend herself, but her stammer meant that all the words got stuck at the back of her throat. 

Megan rose to her defence. “She was with us the whole time. It couldn’t have been her.” 

Mindee shrugged her narrow shoulders. “Maybe. But it’s suspicious. She shows up, and since then we’ve had someone die every single day. There’ll be someone dead tomorrow and the day after that, you mark my words.” 

* 

Mindee might have been being sensationalist, but that didn’t change the fact that anyone at the school might be the next target. 

At dinner, Professor Xavier told the rest of the school about Quentin’s death, and then after a long pause he added, “I hoped that we could resolve this quickly, but with a second body… if any of you have families willing to take you, I would urge you to ask them to have you come home until this is past. I will do my best to guarantee the safety of every single one of you if you do remain here, but I am forced to admit that right now, the school is not safe.” 

At this, the students started talking among themselves in earnest. 

“My mum doesn’t want anything to do with me,” said Megan. “My grandparents might take me in, but they live all the way across the pond in Wales so it might take a few days to arrange travel.” 

“Most of the students don’t have anywhere else to go,” said David with the air of someone exposing an old wound. “My mum definitely won’t take me, I haven’t had so much as a phone call from her since I got back from the Wasteland, and even before then… she stopped visiting me at the mental institution when I was twelve.” 

“Ouch.” said Megan. “That’s tough. What about you, Ruth? Will you ask your aunt to come get you?” 

“I don’t know – sorry – I know that leaving would be safer, but… but a knight of Tiresia doesn’t run from danger. Please, I spent months defending Tiresia’s borders. Some of the people in my squad got killed by creatures from the Wasteland, no. It doesn’t feel right to leave just because others are dying around me.”

“If the killer goes after me,” said David sombrely, “Well… let’s just leave it with the fact that I can take a life, if I have to.” 

Ruth nodded in agreement. 

“Me too,” said Megan. 

“What?” said Ruth. 

“Huh?” said David. “I thought you went to a fairyland. You were a fantasy football referee!” 

“Some of the games got rough. If needs be, I can summon my Soul Sword and defend myself.” 

David narrowed his eyes. “You’ve been lying this whole time, haven’t you? That world beyond your door wasn’t Virtue at all, was it? It was Neutral.” 

Megan shrugged her shoulders. “Virtue worlds have a better reputation than Neutral ones. But my point is, fighting not fleeing, yeah?” 

“Agreed,” said David. “Fighting not fleeing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ll admit, I was kind of glad that I got to kill off Quentin Quire.
> 
> In the comics, Quentin canonically dyes his hair pink.
> 
> Megan’s Soul Sword is a reference to the Pixie Strikes Back comics.
> 
> Lady Delphic is one of David’s alters that turns up in Legion Quest. She will answer three questions completely truthfully. She is one of the minority of David’s alters that also have a physical mutation: white eyes and blue skin.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of information about this chapter: prolonged social interaction is exhausting for autistic people. After too long socialising, autistic people need time on their own.

After another night of barely sleeping, Ruth wasn’t the only one who looked tired and anxious at breakfast the next morning. Already there were gaps in the seats around the tables where a few students had left. Today was Saturday, so there would be no lessons. 

David seemed especially distracted. He kept tapping his fingers against his plate. Eventually he said, “Can we go see my dad after breakfast? I need to talk to him about something.” 

“Okay,” said Ruth. 

“Sure,” said Megan. 

The three of them were still getting used to the fact that each member of the trio had to agree with other two before they went anywhere. 

Once they’d eaten they made their way to the Professor’s office. Ruth and Megan sat down in the chairs in front of Xavier’s desk, but David remained standing. When he spoke, he got straight to the point. “Dad, I can’t keep doing this.” 

“Doing what?” asked Charles gently. 

“I – you know that I get tired when I’m constantly around people. No offence to Ruth or Megan, but I haven’t been alone in two days straight, and it’s exhausting me. I need to be by myself or I’m going to freak out completely. Just half an hour out in the gardens. Please.” 

Professor Xavier took a few moments to consider David’s words, before he said, “Twenty minutes. Stay within sight of the house. If you see anything – and I mean anything – out of the ordinary, come straight back inside. We’ll all be here waiting for you when you return.” 

David nodded and left the room so quickly that Ruth wondered how long he’d been wanting some time alone. 

Now that David had left, there was an awkward silence. Ruth didn’t know what to say. Maybe she should open with: “I’m sure that the school is much nicer when people aren’t dying all the time. Maybe things will be better next semester. Also, I think your son is kind of cute, even if he is technically my nemesis.” 

She’d been sitting playing with the hem of her skirt for just over five minutes when David teleported back into the room, the left shoulder of his shirt stained with blood. 

“The front lawn!” he gasped. “He’s on the fucking front lawn!” 

“Take us there,” said the Professor. 

There was a rushing sensation and a burst of golden light, and then Ruth was standing a little dizzily outside the mansion’s front door. 

The man standing on the front lawn was wearing ragged prison clothing that had once been orange but was now closer to brown. His right hand was firmly gripping the handle of a kitchen knife, the blade coated in blood both old and new. His eyes glowed a sickly yellow. 

Under his tangled, uncut brown hair, he was grinning. 

“Hey, little sister,” said Luca Aldine. 

* 

The pieces fell together all at once. 

Ruth had gotten telepathy from her time in Tiresia. David had become a telepath while he was in the Wasteland. Why shouldn’t Luca be the same? 

And when they’d both fallen in the battle at Tiresia’s border, Ruth had come back to Earth, so she should have realised that Luca would have returned as well. 

It probably hadn’t even been that difficult for him to find her. Not with telepathy. There would have been a paper trail from her children’s home to her aunt Rogue’s place, and Rogue’s education at the Home for Wayward Children would have been in her file. 

The only thing that she didn’t understand was – 

“Why, Luca? You’ve – please, please – always wanted me dead. But you didn’t even know Sojobo or Quentin. Why them?” 

He shrugged. “Why not? They were ungodly, Ruth. Freaks of nature like you. The trophies I took? I threw them out into the woods for the animals to eat. Those abominations didn’t deserve anything better.” He sniggered. “And to think that the teachers at this place tell them that they’re special. Bunch of fucking snowflakes if you ask me. Besides, it was fun being able to get some practice in. Warming up. I have a right to take my own sweet time about my killing, little sister.” 

She tried a telepathic attack on his mind, but he batted her away and she winced. 

The Professor spoke to her then, his voice soft in her head. _I’m trying to break into his mind too. I just need a few more moments…_

Ruth looked over at David and somehow he looked right into her eyes even though she had none. Neither of them wanted to wait a few more moments to deal with the monster of a human in front of them. Telepathically, she told him her idea, and he agreed. 

It wasn’t honourable. 

It felt like cheating. 

But it was the quickest way to end this. 

Ruth reached out with her left hand and took David’s hand in her own. His fingers were slick with blood from where he’d been pressing his hand to his wound. 

With her right hand, she pulled the Cerebro sword from its sheath in the Professor’s chair. 

If Luca had figured out what they were going to do next, he didn’t show it. He raised his knife in a mock-salute. 

David teleported them behind Luca, and she buried Cerebro in his back. 

Her brother fell face-first onto the grass. 

David dropped her hand and went back to holding his injured shoulder, blood welling up between his fingers. His breaths were coming in painful gasps; Ruth could feel his mind going into shock. 

Charles Xavier descended the ramp from the front door and pulled Cerebro from Luca’s back. He cleaned the blade with his handkerchief before sliding it home in the scabbard of his chair. “It’s been a long time since Cerebro last tasted blood. David, can you heal your shoulder or do you need first aid?” 

“Give me a minute.” He closed his eyes, and where his hand was pressed to his shoulder, golden light spilled out from between his fingers. His breathing slowed. “Okay, that’s better. Though I think I’m going into shock.” He wiped his hand on his ruined shirt. “Dad, I can already feel you blaming yourself. Stop.” 

“I should have sensed him,” said Xavier. “If I’d searched the grounds myself, I would have found him. If I’d asked Jean to search alongside the others, she would have found him, but I picked non-telepaths, so he managed to hide himself and Quentin paid the price.” 

“Then blame me. If I hadn’t been in such a state over seeing Sojobo’s body I wouldn’t have needed Jean looking after me.” 

Charles Xavier took the blanket off his legs and passed it to David, who wrapped it around his shoulders. “It wasn’t your fault.” 

“It was Luca’s fault,” said Ruth. “No-one else’s.” 

Her hands had started to shake, and David walked up to her and said, “Let’s share the shock blanket.” 

She gave him a small smile and let him tuck the blanket around her. Ruth leaned her head against his shoulder, knowing that she didn’t want to move again for at least the next hour. She wrapped her arms around David’s waist, her fingers brushing lean muscle through his shirt, and he held her close in turn. He smelled like blood and fresh linen. 

“Uh, guys?” said Megan, “What are we going to do with the body?” 

* 

Neither Sojobo nor Quentin had parents who would claim them, so they were laid to rest in a quiet corner of the gardens beside a yew tree where magpies liked to perch. 

Most afternoons Karasu could be seen sitting by her brother’s headstone. 

Ruth had said that she didn’t care what happened to Luca’s body, and she’d meant it, so Logan buried him in an unmarked grave deep in the mansion’s surrounding woods. 

* 

After a month and a half, the mansion had well and truly returned to its daily routine. 

Ruth went to lessons, and missed Tiresia, and did her homework, and missed Tiresia, and flirted tentatively with David, and missed Tiresia. 

The day had dawned with a drizzly rain that continued through the afternoon, so Ruth was surprised to see David head towards the front door, and even more surprised when he gestured for her to follow. 

She pulled on her raincoat and went out with him. 

David hadn’t bothered with a raincoat or an umbrella, or even to use his telekinesis to deflect the rain, so the drops dampened his hair and ran down his cheeks like tears. 

She followed him up the road to the main gates of the mansion’s grounds. They were of a tall, twisting, black-painted iron, and once the two of them were a few metres away David stopped walking and so did Ruth. 

“You’re not happy here,” he said softly. 

“I – thank you – I miss Tiresia.” 

He didn’t turn to look at her. “I can’t often do this. But, for you…” 

David raised one slender hand and flicked his fingers. The rain directly in front of them began to fall slower, until it stopped. The droplets started to blend together until they formed the diaphanous outline of a door. Another flick of David’s fingers, and the door sprang open. 

Beyond it were the deep, dark forests and rolling hills of Tiresia. Of home. 

“Go,” he told her. “Go be the heir to Lady Destiny. Go be a knight and a princess and someday a queen.” 

Ruth took one urgent, thoughtless step towards the door, before she stopped herself and turned back to him. 

“Come with me.” 

His lips parted, and for a moment he said nothing. “I – I can’t, Ruth. The things I did in the Rainbow Wasteland, the lives I took… Tiresia wouldn’t want me, and I don’t think the Wasteland could forgive me.” He couldn’t hide the longing on his face. 

“The creatures of the Wasteland, yes, only killed on the Shadow King’s orders. And you were his heir. You said that I’ll be a queen someday – please, sorry – but you’re a king _right now_. The Wastelanders need a ruler. They need you.” 

He closed his eyes for a heartbeat, then opened them again. “The Shadow King tortured the creatures of the Wasteland. Twisted them up until they were as cruel as he was. Do – do you think that if I was kind to them, they might learn to be kind back?” 

“You can try. I think I’d like it if you tried.” Ruth swallowed. “And – and we can draw up a peace treaty between our kingdoms. No more fighting, no more death. Please, you’re allowed to forgive yourself, David. Forgive yourself, and come with me.” 

He did it again, the trick of his where he looked right into her eyes even though she had no eyes for him to meet, so Ruth walked close to him and cupped his face in her hand. “It wouldn’t feel right to go home and know that I’d left you here.” 

“Together?” 

“Together.” She remembered something, and dropped her hand. “Do you want to tell your dad that you’re going to leave?” Ruth barely had any family, but David had a father in this world, and a mother, no matter how distant she might be. 

“No, he’ll understand. He’ll understand that I’ve gone home. Oh, I can’t wait to see those stars again…” 

The King of the Rainbow Wasteland and the Princess of Tiresia held hands as they stepped through the doorway. The door shut tight behind them, and faded to nothing once the rain had stopped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Perhaps having Luca be the killer was too obvious, but it fitted too well for me to do anything else.
> 
> Luca’s death parallels Ruth stabbing him when he’d possessed Sojobo in X-Men Legacy, as well as parallelling David giving Ruth the chance to stab him in the back in Chapter 2.


	6. Epilogue, Part 1: Stars

Passing through a door slowed the aging process, but Charles had to admit that at ninety, he felt old. 

Oh, he could have passed for his mid-sixties, but that didn’t change the fact that he’d had a long, long life, and lately he’d started to feel the weight of his years all the more. 

He was doing busy-work that afternoon; lesson planning for when the spring term started up. It would be Christmas in a few days, and Charles wondered if, somewhere on the other side of the rainbow, David was lighting the candles for Hannukah. 

Something in the fabric of the world shifted. Charles wasn’t able to say which of his senses detected it, but all the same, something in his surroundings had changed. He set down his paperwork and looked up. 

Next to the door in his office that led into the hall, there was another door. 

It was beautiful, all curling metalwork and stained glass, and its base was flush with the floor: perfect for his wheelchair. 

Was this it? 

Did Genosha want him back, after all this time? 

Did _Erik_ want him back? 

Charles reached for Cerebro over his shoulder. He didn’t draw the sword; only running his fingers over the worn leather grip and the intricate metalwork of the hilt. 

He knew full well that his body was in no shape to wield it properly, but he’d kept it close by every day for sixty years, just in case. 

Whether he would leave or not wasn’t even a question. He’d been preparing Kitty Pryde to replace him as head of the school, and Jean would be able to take over his lessons. 

He was certain that this time, there would be no painful expulsion back to Earth. This time, he would stay for good. 

When he laid his fingertips on one delicate glass pane, the door swung open. 

The land Charles saw was emphatically not Genosha. 

The world seemed divided in half. To his right, the trees and stones and rolling hills were reminiscent of Dartmoor. Delicate white flakes of snow were floating down to dust the landscape. 

To Charles’ left, there was nothing so orderly. The ground was hard-packed earth, the trees strangely twisted. Everything was a riot of colour; even the snow fell in great drifts of blue, red, green, orange, yellow, and purple. 

Charles had never seen this place before, but he knew it at once. 

It wasn’t Genosha, but the door had opened for him and he would go through it anyway. 

Once he was through, the door shut tight and vanished. 

White flakes of snow from the Tiresia side of the world caught on Charles’ eyelashes, and a slight chill began to creep through his clothes. 

The ground was smooth, and very easy going for a wheelchair. After a few experimental meanderings, Charles discovered that the air was slightly warmer in the Rainbow Wasteland. Not that it looked much like a wasteland. There were trees, and he saw a great orange flower that was roughly the size of a car. 

He decided that he’d travel along the border between the two realms. It was as good a direction to take as any. 

Charles had been pushing himself along for perhaps five minutes when he was tackled around the chest by a bundle of white and blue that cried happily, “Grandad!” 

It took Charles a full ten seconds to fully register the meaning and context of that word, and once he was done he was able to properly look at the girl who’d thrown herself into his lap and was still hugging him very tightly. 

She was perhaps twelve years old, and looked as if she had been cut out of the night sky itself. Her skin was deepest blue and spangled with half a thousand stars. Constellations were hung in her hair. Her eyes shone white. 

Her sundress was as white as her eyes, and sewn from about a hundred different pieces of fabric: cotton and silk and satin and lace. Aside from that, her only clothing was a pink bow in her hair. She was barefoot. 

Charles said the first thing that came into his head. “Aren’t you cold?” 

She pulled back and stood in front of him. Well, stood perhaps wasn’t the right word for it. She couldn’t keep still for a single instant, and kept hopping excitedly from foot to foot. “No, I never get cold! Are you cold?” 

“Well, yes.” 

“Then you have to come with me to the palace!” 

Charles looked all around. There wasn’t a single building in sight. “Where’s the palace?” 

She grinned. “I’ll take you, I’m so good at teleportation!” 

There was a rush of air and a flash of dark blue, and then the two of them were standing on a road. 

It was still on the border between the two countries, and it was split down the middle, with the right-hand side made from smooth black stone, and the left-hand side a crazed mosaic of multicoloured glass, with no regularity in either the colour or the size of the tiles. In the distance at the end of the road there was a large building which Charles supposed must be the palace. 

“Could you teleport us a bit closer?” 

The girl seemed a bit more subdued. “But… but if we go from here, we’ll be home in time for dinner.” 

“Oh, all right then.” He smiled gently at the girl so that she’d see there was no harm done. “What’s your name?” 

“Singularity.” 

“That’s a pretty name.” Charles tried and failed to trace any hint of David’s features in her face. And if David was her father, then who was her mother? Timelines didn’t match up properly between different worlds, so he had no idea how old David was any more. 

As they made their way towards the palace, Singularity kept up a chatter of conversation, telling Charles all about her best friends America and Nico. Nico had been the one who gave her the bow in her hair, and Nico had a girlfriend called Karolina who glowed like a rainbow. 

The closer they got to the palace, the more impressed Charles was by the architecture. The building was a perfect fusion of Logic and Nonsense: it was exactly symmetrical, and elegantly carved from stone, but the stone was technicolour and some of the geometry was decidedly non-Euclidean. 

The palace gates were guarded by two sentries. On the right was a man dressed all in red, his eyes covered. A discrete sweep of his mind confirmed the fact that he was blind like most of Tiresia’s citizens, and had found another way to see. The woman on the left was well over six feet tall and muscles bulged under her green skin. She was dressed all in purple, and she smiled when she saw Singularity. 

“Hey there, little blue. Who have you got there?” 

Singularity grinned proudly. “Grandad came to visit.” 

“Well you’d better take him up to the king and queen then, hadn’t you?” 

The green woman pushed the gate open with one hand, and Charles followed his granddaughter into the palace grounds. She turned to wave at the guards. “Bye, Jen! Bye, Matt!” 

Singularity led him through the sprawling gardens and into the palace proper. Charles had worried about steps and stairs, but he needn’t have; the whole place was equipped with ramps and lifts. Eventually Singularity stopped outside a pair of large doors. Before she opened them, she turned to smile at him one more time. 

The doors opened onto a splendid throne room. The ceiling far above was intricately carved; the floor was an elegant tessellation of stone tiles, each a different hue. At the far end stood two thrones. 

The couple that sat on them looked to be in their mid-twenties. The woman wore a blindfold of the same silver-grey silk as her dress, which covered her from wrist to ankle, the skirt panelled with purple satin. The man was dressed in trousers the colour of a sunset and a tunic which kept shifting between different shades of blue. 

They weren’t wearing crowns. They didn’t need them. Somewhere in the years since Charles had last seen them, each had obtained a confidence which displayed itself even in the way that they sat the thrones. 

David stood and walked towards Charles and Singularity with quick strides. He ruffled Singularity’s hair, and Charles thought he caught a brief telepathic message between them before David turned to Charles. 

“Dad, it’s… it’s been a while.” 

Charles’ mind was struggling to keep up. After David had left, whenever he thought of him in the Wasteland he’d imagined David as a teenage boy, but this was David the man, David the king, David the father. “I missed you,” he said softly. 

David leaned down to hug his father. “’Missed you too, dad.” He straightened up and looked over at an electric blue ant the size of a motorbike that was standing at the edge of the hall. “Could you tell the cook that we’ll be having one more for dinner?” The ant nodded and scuttled off. David turned his gaze back to Charles. “I’m guessing that you have questions.” 

Charles smiled. “I want to know everything.” 

* 

The food was delicious, even if some of the tastes were impossible to identify. 

David had done most of the talking. When she spoke, Ruth didn’t stammer as much as she used to, but she was clearly still a little shy about it. Or perhaps she was just nervous about the fact that Charles was her father-in-law now. 

Initially Charles had wondered if David’s marriage to Ruth had been a political match to end the constant skirmishes along the border between their Realms, but the longer he watched the two of them, the more he realised that it couldn’t be true. When they looked at each other, both their minds blazed with love. Charles was almost jealous. He’d never been able to find that kind of stability with Erik, yet somehow David had managed to find enough of a midpoint with his nemesis to marry her and start a family. 

Organising the peace between Tiresia and the Wasteland hadn’t been easy for them. As soon as they stepped through their door they’d had to separate: Ruth had returned to her great-grandmother, and David had travelled to the Rainbow Wasteland. It had taken years for the citizens of Tiresia and the Wasteland to treat each other with anything other than contempt, but over time friendships were formed, grudges forgiven, and the Arena where David had fought and killed so many times had been torn down. Over time, the Wasteland had been planted and made to bloom. 

After dinner Ruth went to put Singularity to bed, leaving David and Charles alone together for the first time in years. David went over to the dining room’s balcony. It had a strange sort of transparent bubble around it that kept out the chill. When the wind blew, the bubble rippled, creating a slight distortion in the air. 

While they ate, night had fallen, and as Charles went over to join his son on the balcony, he understood why David had never been able to forget the Wasteland’s stars. They shone high above, a billion bright jewels in a million colours, swirling into patterns that took his breath away. 

David leaned against the balcony and said, “She fell from the sky.” 

“Who?” 

“Singularity. She fell from the sky. The guard you met at the gate – Jennifer Walters – she went to examine the crater and found Singularity. And, well, me and Ruth hadn’t really gotten around to talking about kids, but in the end we thought, why not?” David tore his gaze from the night sky and looked down at Charles. “Usually, the two of us put her to bed together, but Ruth’s doing it on her own today because she knows that I need to show you something. I could show you tomorrow, but the night’s still young, and I think you’ll want to see straight away.” 

“What is it?” 

“Dad… I have Erik Lehnsherr.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Singularity is from the A-Force comics and she’s super cute.
> 
> I couldn’t resist having a She-Hulk and Daredevil cameo. They fit too well into the Wasteland and Tiresia, respectively.
> 
> The palace’s architecture looks a bit like the interior of La Segrada Familia in Spain. It also looks a bit like David and Ruth’s mindscapes towards the end of X-Men Legacy (2012).
> 
> David’s outfit looks similar to the orange and blue dress from the HASSIDRIS couture spring/summer 2019 collection.
> 
> Ruth’s dress is similar to the one she wears in the Old Man Hawkeye comics, but it’s a bit more queenly.
> 
> The implication in this chapter is that David has managed to change the Wasteland’s compass orientation from Nonsense, Wicked to Nonsense, Virtue.


	7. Epilogue, Part 2: Sword

As David led Charles through the halls of the palace, he explained. “Doors open frequently between Tiresia and Genosha. Often enough that we have a peace treaty with them. Five years ago, Erik was deposed and imprisoned by his eldest daughter, and I made it one of the conditions of our treaty that he would live in Tiresia under house arrest.” 

“Why did you want him?” asked Charles. “I’m glad that you have him, of course, but why would you put a condition like that in the treaty?” 

David smiled. “Dad, I have precognition and my wife is the queen of a nation full of seers. We knew you’d come to the Wasteland eventually. Now, I have to get permission from the Genoshan ambassador before you can see him.” 

They stopped outside a door, and David knocked. The woman who opened it was in her early thirties, wearing a dress that exactly matched her lime-green hair. She gave Charles a once-over. “So this is him?” 

“Yeah,” said David, “this is him. Dad, this is Lorna Dane. She’s Erik’s younger daughter, and the Genoshan ambassador to Tiresia and the Rainbow Wasteland.” 

Lorna shut the door to her apartments behind her and the three of them left the palace and followed a path through the gardens. Charles’ mind was reeling. _Two children_. After he’d left Genosha, Erik had met someone else and had two children, or maybe even more. It wasn’t jealousy that he was feeling. After Erik had thrown him out of Genosha, Charles had been with Moira, then Gabrielle (who’d given him David), and then Lilandra. Erik was allowed to take other lovers after Charles. 

No, Charles wasn’t jealous; instead, he felt a profound sensation of loss. 

Because if Erik had taken other lovers, then it was entirely plausible that he no longer had feelings for Charles. Charles only needed to look in the mirror and see the lines around his eyes to be reminded that it had been decades. He was no longer the young man of twenty-four that he’d been when they had first fallen for each other. _I need to prepare myself_ , he thought. _I need to prepare myself in case he doesn’t love me anymore._

The section of the gardens that they walked through was on the Tiresia side of the border, with neatly clipped lawns and carefully maintained flower beds. David, Lorna, and Charles went through a gap in a high hedge, and then Charles saw the house. Sitting inside a spacious rectangle of tall hedges, it was a bungalow of plain grey stone with a large garden, and the whole thing was surrounded by a bubble similar to the one around the dining room balcony; Charles could see the slight ripple in the air around it. 

David and Lorna stepped up to the bubble, and each placed one hand against it. The bubble pulsed with blue light. “Okay,” said David, “Put your hand on the force field.” 

Charles did so. The force field was solid, smooth as glass, and he felt a slight tingle in his hand as if from static electricity. 

David and Lorna dropped their hands, so Charles did as well, and the blue light faded. 

“The force field will let you through now.” David told him. 

Charles stretched out his hand, and experimentally probed the force field with one finger. It was still solid and impassable. “Is there something wrong with it?” 

“The sword,” murmured Lorna. 

“Of course,” said David. “Dad, I’m sorry, but you can’t enter if you’re carrying a weapon.” 

“I see.” Charles had kept Cerebro by his side ever since Erik had forged it for him, and the prospect of parting from it for even a short time pained him, but it had to be done. He slid Cerebro from the scabbard in his chair and held it out to David. “Look after it for me.” 

“I will.” David waved his hand in the air, using his powers to form a belt and scabbard out of nothing. He tied it around his waist and took Cerebro from Charles’ hands, sliding it into the scabbard with care. “I’ll get a room set up for you and put it in there.” 

Charles swallowed. “What if – what if he doesn’t recognise me?” 

“He will.” David patted Charles on the shoulder. “You’ve got this.” He turned and left through the gap in the hedge, with Lorna following close behind. 

Charles was left alone, facing Erik’s house with a growing sense of trepidation. He straightened his tie with shaking hands and pushed himself through the force field. 

* 

Erik’s front door didn’t have a lock on it, which Charles supposed made sense. If anyone could get through the force field without David and Lorna’s permission then a mere lock wouldn’t be enough to keep them out. 

Even so, he didn’t cross the threshold. Instead he sat there, looking through the open door at the room beyond, afraid of what would happen if he entered the house. 

Erik’s living room was comfortably furnished, with a warm blaze in the fireplace to combat the winter chill. Charles’ body protested at being kept outside in the cold, but he still wouldn’t draw closer to those flames. 

Time didn’t work the same way in different worlds. What if Erik hadn’t aged? If Erik was still the same reckless, angry, _beautiful_ thirty-two-year-old that he’d been sixty years ago then Charles thought he might break. 

Perhaps this whole thing had been a bad idea. He could leave, go back to the palace, ask David and Lorna to promise to never mention his presence in Tiresia to Erik, and that way Charles would never get his heart broken. 

But before he could turn away, Erik came striding in. “Well, to what do I owe the pleasure of…” His voice trailed off when he caught sight of Charles. Erik placed one shaking hand on the back of a chair and lowered himself into it. “Charles.” 

Somehow, Charles found the strength to push himself inside and close the door behind him. “It’s been a long time, Erik.” 

Erik _had_ aged. There were lines on his face and his hair was all of silver. He was wearing black trousers and a shirt of deepest purple, but even though Erik was older now, Charles still thought that he was too bloody handsome. It didn’t really make him feel much better about his own lined face and withered strength. 

“David told me that you’d come.” They couldn’t take their eyes off each other. So much time had gone by that each had to re-learn the other’s appearance. “I confess,” Erik continued, “When I first saw him, I couldn’t quite believe that you’d had a child. Though the disbelief didn’t last long; he looks so much like you.” He flicked his eyes down to Charles’ chair. “David also told me that the wheelchair is my fault. I’m – I’m so sorry. For that, and for throwing you out of Genosha. I was so young, so foolish…” 

“I forgave you a long time ago, my friend. You were doing what you thought was right.” 

“And not stopping to consider the cost.” Erik paused. “Will you be staying long in Tiresia?” 

“I think so. I certainly have no intention of returning to Earth.” 

“I see. I only thought that… well, David doesn’t visit me often, and when he does he never mentions his mother.” 

“I haven’t seen Gabrielle in a long time. And besides, I could ask the same of you. From what I hear, you have two daughters. They didn’t come from nothing.” 

“And a son. Their mothers both left me before the end, though. I was a lousy husband.” 

Charles smiled softly. “I find that hard to believe.” 

Erik swallowed. Charles couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen the man so nervous. “When you left Genosha, you took Cerebro with you. May I ask what happened to it?” 

“I kept it. I kept it with me, always. Though it’s with David right now; I didn’t want to give it up, but I can’t bring any weapons inside the force field.” 

“And I can’t use my powers inside the force field either.” A flicker of grief crossed Erik’s face, and Charles sent a sensation of warmth over to the other man through his telepathy. He knew how much Erik’s powers had meant to him. “I understand why our children bound my powers,” Erik continued, “in the same way that I understand why nobody is permitted to bring a weapon into my presence. But still, I would have liked to see Cerebro again.” 

“I kept it sharp. It’s as beautiful as the day you forged it for me.” 

“As are you.” 

Charles’ breath caught in his throat. “Erik, I…” 

Erik interrupted him. “No, I’m the one in error here, Charles. Forgive me. I said too much.” 

He gripped the blanket over his knees, his fingers clutching the heavy fabric. “I was only going to say that you don’t need to pretend to find me as attractive as you did back then. I’ve aged. I’m – I’m ninety. You have no obligation to keep loving me.” 

“And yet I do. Even if you don’t feel the same way.” There was so much sorrow in Erik’s mind that Charles could have drowned in it. 

“I do, Erik. After all this time, I still do.” 

“I deposed you,” Erik whispered. “I took your crown for myself and I broke your body and I don’t know how you could possibly forgive me.” 

Charles took his hands off the blanket and pushed himself towards Erik until they were directly facing each other. He reached out and took Erik’s hand. “I told you: I already have.” 

Later, Charles wouldn’t be sure who leaned in first, but when it came the kiss was soft as longing. Brief, but the next one was deeper, and the one after that deeper still. Erik let go of his hand and cupped Charles’ face in his hands; Charles let his fingers tangle in Erik’s hair. 

Tiresia was not Genosha. It would never be Genosha. But here Charles had David and Ruth and Singularity and Erik. Erik, bathed in the light from the fire. Erik, saying that he had a chess set if Charles wanted to play, and Charles said maybe tomorrow; it was late. Erik, leading Charles to his bedroom. 

Tiresia would never be Genosha, but with time, Charles knew that it could be home.


End file.
